I serve as Executive Vice President for Customer Development at the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) in Atlanta, Georgia. My responsibilities include the directing of the various offices and departments of the agency charged with governmental relations, planning, marketing, media and public relations, community relations, research, customer service and economic development. I am neither a legal expert nor a planning technician. My responsibilities are much broader and require constant efforts to build sustainable consensus among those with whom I must interact.
Although I am a strong advocate for public transit in the transportation conformity "discussions" within the local, regional, state and national debate, transit advocacy is not my principal reason for agreeing to appear before this Committee today. Rather, I offer to the committee certain observations from a local implementing agency on the impact of efforts at achieving transportation conformity within my community in the hope of presenting a perspective from the field that you might not obtain otherwise.
Within the Sunbelt, Atlanta has been one of those fortunate cities that has recently been blessed with growth and success. We have few natural barriers to growth - no great rivers to cross, no mountain ranges or valleys, no sea coast. Georgia has a history of strong home rule and our land use laws, which are principally assigned to local governments to develop, are generally weak. Like water poured onto a flat surface, we can and do grow freely in any direction that we desire.
In efforts to expand their local tax base, local municipalities and counties compete to attract new residents and new jobs. Local and state governments have poured tax dollars into the provision of infrastructure to support and attract this new growth. We are known as a pro-business region. Atlanta is consistently ranked among the top ten cities in which to do business. In 1998, the Atlanta census region had more than 326,000 housing permits issued making us second only to Los Angeles and the Washington Baltimore area ("State Implementation Plan for the Atlanta Ozone NonAttainment Area", June 7, 1999, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Environment Protection Division, Air Protection Branch, p. i).
Without natural boundaries and with competition for growth strong among local governments, our region has become the 'poster child' for sprawl. We have become the victims of our own success. In 1998 the Sierra Club listed Atlanta as the number one city most threatened by sprawl, while national news media declared the region the new sprawl capital. This is not the kind of recognition that civic and business leaders desire.
A state Constitution that places land use decisions at the local level and a metropolitan planning organization charged with land use and transportation planning composed principally of the heads of local governments and their appointees, each with an equal vote, has added to our inability to come to grips with our regional sprawl. Sprawl has resulted in Atlanta residents traveling more in their automobiles than any place in the world, more than 100,000,000 miles per day representing 36.5 miles per day per capita and a 50.8 minute average commute ("State Implementation Plan for the Atlanta Ozone Non-Attainment Area", June 7, 1999, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Environment Protection Division, Air Protection Branch, p. ii).
We know that ground level ozone is formed from a chemical reaction of NOx and VOCs in heat and strong sunlight (both are a fact of life in the Sunbelt summer). In the 13 county Atlanta Non-Attainment area, cars and trucks account for about half of the NOx emissions and nearly half of the non-natural source VOC emissions. Given the American love for the automobile and our local land use pattern, is it surprising that the Atlanta region was classified as Serious Non-Attainment for Ozone following the passage of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990?
Did the Clean Air Act Amendments passed by Congress create the problem? No, the law simply recognized the problem and insisted that local solutions be found and implemented. Is it a new problem? No, in fact the Atlanta region has only met the old attainment standard for ozone (no more than 0.12 ppm during one hour on any day per year) once in the last 20 years. We can debate the parts per million or old standard or new standard, but the air is still dirty. We can and should discuss excuses for exceedance like the weather in the Sunbelt or the negative effects of trees, but the air is still unhealthy. Congress has rightfully determined that Americans are entitled to clean air and that communities must determine actions to see that they achieve it or risk losing federal funds for projects that are contributing to the problem.
Metropolitan Atlanta was one of the first regions to be faced with the difficulties of obtaining transportation conformity. We have also been subject to law suits to force the agencies charged with achieving conformity and attainment to do what they are supposed to do to protect the health of their citizens. It may be one of the most difficult issues ever presented to our community to solve.
Agencies, governments and individuals have staked out positions in this battle, and battle it is, and have begun to point fingers, seeking to place blame for the situation in which we find ourselves. It has been reported that Congress will soon put an end to these sanctions and conformity requirements and that we can go back to doing things the way we always have, postponing the inevitable day of reckoning to some point in the distant future. I hope not. It is not the fault of Congress, the EPA, the DOT, the environmentalists, transit advocates, or the road lobby. In truth, it is our own fault and as such we must solve it.
The federal sanctions placed on my community are undoubtedly causing difficulty. The response to these sanctions has brought out the worst and the best in our public servants and citizens. Let me offer some examples of the difficulties that we have experienced.
When the federal sanctions were imposed on our region for failing to meet conformity, more than 100 road projects were considered for grandfathering under the conformity regulations. Most of these would have greatly increased single occupant vehicle use in the region and exacerbated the problems with cleaning the air. These were not necessarily "bad" projects and all were projects that individual local governments advocated and the Georgia DOT supported for local development and increased mobility. However, even if federal sanctions remained in place for any new road projects, estimates were that these projects would take up to 10 years to complete at a time when we were in serious non-attainment for ozone. Was this the intent of Congress? I certainly hope not. But the system worked in this case. Subsequent negotiations among federal and state agencies pared this list nearly in half. Then a lawsuit was fled and settled out of court that reduced the number of projects to sixteen. Although not everyone (perhaps no one) was totally satisfied with the result, I think it is clear that it took the region in the right direction for solving its clean air problems. I am convinced that this result could never have been achieved without the law and the court's insistence that the will of Congress be obeyed.
Even transit is having problems with the transportation conformity law and regulations. Most would consider the availability of mass transit a positive solution to getting commuters out of their cars and reducing the vehicle miles traveled in the single occupant vehicle. Under current rules, new rail lines cannot be built without a conforming regional transportation plan. In Atlanta, efforts to expand transit as part of the solution to our air quality problems will have to be postponed until we have a conforming plan. Conformity regulations allow certain transportation projects, like a transit rail extension, to be classified as a transportation control measure (TCM) but current estimates indicate that the process would take between 18 months to two years to obtain that designation on each project considered. The ability to expedite such procedures should be available as appropriate.
However, the focus that the Clean Air Act and conformity requirements have brought to our region's problems has also had some significant positive results.
State, regional and locally elected officials, in response to concerns expressed by their citizens for the quality of life threatened by congestion and failure to meet air quality standards, have begun to think in terms of regional transportation systems and mobility rather than simply building specific road projects to meet a local government's individual economic development need. Citizens do not necessarily see more roads as the only answer to their congestion and clean air problems. It probably does not hurt that recent elections have resulted in candidates who support smart growth defeating the growth at any cost incumbents.
For years, suburban counties have been resistant to public transportation. Recent surveys have shown strong evidence of changes in people's attitude toward mass transit. The impact of the Clean Air Act has been that citizens are educating themselves and are being educated on the problem of clean air and the health hazards to their families. This is the precursor to behavioral changes that are necessary for our community to solve our conformity problem.
Ridership on the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) has grown by 20% since 1996. Developers now seek us out and report that they have clients whose requirements for locating their new headquarters or offices are that they be next to our rail stations or accessible by public transit.
In short, Congress' intent expressed through the Clean Air Act, the federal agencies' willingness to impose sanctions and the federal court's willingness to uphold the law, have significantly changed the dynamics of decision making within the Atlanta region. Unquestionably, that was the reason that the newly elected Governor, Roy E. Barnes, convinced the state legislature to create a new state agency, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA). GRTA is empowered to withhold state support for transportation and other projects if local governments are not responsible in planning for and addressing issues of transportation conformity and congestion.
The transportation conformity requirements and, ultimately, the threat of successful litigation are forcing communication among all levels of government charged with transportation and environmental planning. If we want more roads, then we must support other transportation alternatives (transit rail, HOV lanes, bikeways, buses, sidewalks, and commuter rail) that will allow us to achieve conformity. Meaningful land use planning to better support our transportation decisions and smart growth policies are now being debated as critical elements in preserving our quality of life and continued regional success.
In conclusion, I would ask Congress and this Committee to move cautiously in considering changes to the transportation conformity provisions of the
Clean Air Act. Change is occurring in our communities challenged with achieving conformity and meeting the national air quality standards. We continue to need help from our federal partners as we seek to meet this challenge but we must solve our own problems at the state, local and regional level. Sadly, it is unlikely that this will happen without the continued insistence of the Congress in this matter.